Nineteen days after the invasion of Iraq, Hans Blix was asked about the fact that no biological or chemical weapons had been found. He said:

United States as well as the United Kingdom always told us that Iraq possessed those weapons. We never accepted this statement as an established fact. Establishing this was exactly what our work consisted of. Sadly, both Governments were seen to be very impatient in the first days of March. And they did not leave us to finish the task. A few months were need for us to determine if the Iraqi possessed the arms the Americans and British insisted they had. I am very curious to know if they are really going to find them. I believe that no one has more interest in this than I.

Today Blix published an article in The Guardian, in which he said that the responsibility for the war must rest "on what those launching it knew by March 2003."

For the past few years, Bush has been asking for more time to prove that his failed strategy in Iraq will produce results. Yet Bush gave UN weapons inspectors less than four months to search Iraq for WMD, after being allowed to re-enter Iraq in late November of 2002 after a four year absence. During that time the inspectors found no evidence of the weapons the Bush administration claimed that Saddam had. Inspectors asked for more time to complete their mission, but Bush was adamant, ignoring not only their requests, but also claims by Iraqi leaders that Iraq had destroyed its weapons in accordance with UN directives.

I've written up a lengthy post for my own blog about PBS host Jim Lehrer's false claim to an Australian media reporter that 85% of Congress supported the Iraq war.

But I wanted to share one item I ran across in my research for that post here. The Pew Research Center did a poll after the presentations to the UN Security Council by UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and US Secretary of State Colin Powell that went to the heart of the media coverage of the arguments for war and claims by people like Jim Lehrer that they informed the public to the best of their ability. Even though only 26% of the respondents opposed the war under all circumstances at that point (another 23% felt more international support was needed), 42% of the respondents said that they had heard too little from war opponents.

I wonder why that was?

A handy compendium of times Bush failed to hear (and heed):

UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, January 9, 2003:

We have now been there for some two months and been covering the country in ever wider sweeps and we haven't found any smoking guns.

More...

It seems that not only the Bush administration, but also most Democrats have chosen over the past five years to ignore the sage advice offered by Hans Blix.  It is time for that to change.  As I wrote here an apology to Dr. Blix is LONG overdue.  That diary generated two (2) comments, which puzzles me greatly.

Dr. Blix led the UN inspectors who demanded (and got) complete, unfettered access to Iraqi facilities and issued reports that contradicted Bush's maniacal rush to war and slaughter.  Nobody bothered to acknowledge his service, to thank him for trying to prevent this debacle we are in, or to give him the honor he deserves for maintaining his integrity in the face of unrelenting assaults.

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Let's not forget that Paul Wolfowitz himself, one of the chief architects of the Iraq war, admitted a year or so after the invasion that "we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."  Hence, the ever changing storyline on why the regime decided that invasion was a good idea.

But I digress...

Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Wednesday described the United States-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the country worse off than under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

I think many people have said this now.  Wasn't Senator Rockefeller one of them?

IMO, we could have paid Saddamm to behave better for a lot less money and lives.  But the truth may also be that Iraq needs a "strongman dictator" to keep the different factions in order.  

Almost all the talk these days is about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to states like Iran and North Korea, or to terrorists. Foreign ministers meet again and again, concerned that Iran has enriched a few milligrams of uranium to a 4 percent level.

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Get well soon, Ms. Dozier! Condolences to the families of all journalists killed in Iraq.

The Sunday Lineup (Source: Hotline, wire services)

* Meet the Press: Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission Chair Dr. Hans Blix. Holy crap! After three straight weeks without a Dem guest, we've got one week without a GOPer! Also on MTP: CNBC and WSJ's John Harwood, and PBS's Gwen Ifill.
* Face the Nation: Sec/State Condoleezza Rice and Time's Mike Duffy.
* This Week: VP Gore. Ex-Labor Sec. Robert Reich and Time's Jay Carney join the roundtable. Author John Updike is the Voices segment.
* Fox News Sunday: Rice, and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Jack Reed (D-RI).
* Late Edition: Rice and Sens. George Allen (R-VA) and Carl Levin (D-MI).

We don't know how close he is today, but a Saddam Hussein with a nuclear weapon is a grave, grave threat to America and our friends and allies. link

Donald Rumsfeld, September 19, 2002:

There are a number of terrorist states pursuing weapons of mass destruction -- Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, just to name a few -- but no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. link

Hans Blix, January 9, 2003:

"We have now been there for some two months and been covering [Iraq] in ever wider sweeps and we haven't found any smoking guns." link

George W. Bush, January 16, 2006:

"Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a grave threat to the security of the world." link

George W. Bush, March 16, 2006:

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran. link

Hans Blix, April 3, 2006:

(AP) Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that Iran is a least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, leaving time to peacefully negotiate a settlement. [...]

"We have time on our side in this case. Iran can't have a bomb ready in the next five years," Blix was quoted as saying. link

Condoleeza Rice, March 31, 2006:

"If you're impervious to the lessons you've just come out of you're brain-dead.'' link

Is it too much to hope they have learned to listen Hans Blix and not those beating the war drums for Iran?

Right now it's most important to concentrate on the first three.  What more progressives need to understand it that 25% of the value of the whole process could be achieved by just getting step 3 accomplished and Republicans are going to try again to kill Hinchey's bill on Tuesday or Wednesday. Let's rally to his support!

Reps Hinchey and Waxman are working Step 3 right now.    

It isn't the first time Hans Blix has expressed himself on the Niger forgeries. In a 2004 interview with Jim Lehrer Blix characterized the Niger affair as scandalous: